It's a Motorola MC14017BCP, FLY9506. There's a 555 timer attached so at least the 555 is useful :mrgreen: But what about the motorola chip? The board used to be a LED chaser with 6 LEDs :? Hmmm.

I found a reference that indicates that MC14017 is a decade counter.

Hmm I just found out that the first one points to motorola's specs and not the part. It's a 4017 counter. Hmm would that be cool in FX?

The 4017 has a number of musically interesting uses, all revolving around counting something off.

The traditional use of a 4017 is for analog sequencer applications, where a clock (usually a 555) steps the 4017 through up to 10 steps (though you can cascade them for more than 10 steps if you use more than one 4017).  Each output pin delivers the supply coltage, and a pot lets you divide that output voltage down so that you rotate through a series of different preset voltages.  I haven't looked inside one or ever used one, but I'd be very surprised if the Z-Vex Seek-Wah or Ooh-wah used anything very different.  It's that standard and dependable a circuit.

The outputs don't have to be voltages, though.  For instance the Quad sequential switch article from POLYPHONY that I have posted on my site (http://hammer.ampage.org .....scroll wayyyyyyyyyy down) uses a 4017 to rotate, round-robin style through a series of switching actions.  Hook the one-shot clock up to a momentary footswitch and you can create a pedal-switching system that lets you move through a series of "stations".  You can even use the solid-state switch actuated by the circuit to have control presets that you cycle through.

The input that gets counted off doesn't have to be a footswitch or clock, either.  One generally sees flip-flops (4013) used for generating one and two octaves down, but who says you HAVE to divide by 2 or 4?  Anderton uses the 4017 in a modification to his Rocktave Divider to count off the input signal and generate alternate intervals besides octaves.

Here's another wacko use.

Imagine you have a trigger generator (i.e., detects a strum/note/chord played and generate a brief fixed pulse when one is detected) feeding a counter, which, in turn has one or more of its outputs selected and used to trigger an envelope generator which then drives a filter.

What you have there is a device that can generate an automatic filter sweep on the downbeat or every 5th strum or whatever you choose.  In other words, it doesn't sweep every time you strum.  Sort of a poor man's Adrenalinn.

Yup, lots of things you can do with a 4017.

Sweeeet :mrgreen: There was a 555 driving it. Wahoo I have a 555 and a 4017!!!

There are tons of simple analog sequencers schems out there, noth on-line and in back issues of hobby mags and circuit-collection books.

Time to visit the library!